Cristiano Ronaldo came back to life on Easter Sunday with a quintet of goals, including a sensational eight-minute hat-trick, as Real Madrid annihilated Granada 9-1 to maintain the pressure on La Liga leaders Barcelona .

The Portuguese superstar has been below-par since the turn of the year –his manager Carlo Ancelotti even admitted on Saturday that his “performance levels have dipped” – but he was back at his truly devastating and prolific best on Sunday lunchtime, netting three times before the break and twice after the interval to add to Gareth Bale’s opener, a Karim Benzema brace and an own goal as Real Madrid ran riot against the lowly Andalusian side.

Ronaldo’s haul, which took him up to eighth in La Liga’s all-time goalscoring charts and allowed him to leapfrog Lionel Messi in the battle for this season’s Pichichi top scorer trophy, helped Madrid to move to within one point of Barca, who face a tricky test at Celta Vigo on Sunday evening.

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While it was an afternoon of glorious triumph for Ronaldo, it was also a pretty successful one for his Welsh colleague in attack. Bale’s stunning display for Wales in their 3-0 win at Israel last weekend did not go unnoticed in the Spanish capital – indeed, Madrid-based newspaper Marca even pondered whether Carlo Ancelotti should hand the former Spurs star the same free role that he enjoys with his national side.

Ancelotti did not heed the newspaper’s advice, although Bale was involved in most of Madrid’s early attacking play, and he could have broken the deadlock in the tenth minute. Karim Benzema, situated on the halfway line, pinged the ball forward toward the edge of the box, and Bale took advantage of a mix-up between goalkeeper Oier and defender Juan Carlos to get his foot to it. Unfortunately his touch was a tad heavy and the ball went out of play.

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Madrid did not look entirely comfortable during the opening exchanges and Granada, who had entered the match having managed just four Liga wins and 18 league goals this season, looked dangerous on the counter, taking advantage of the hosts’ high defensive line on several occasions.

Long-serving club captain Iker Casillas, like Bale, has been subjected to the ire of his own supporters on several occasions this season and he was the recipient of more catcalls after Granada nearly took the lead in the 14th minute. The goalkeeper’s throw out from the back toward Marcelo was short and it was intercepted by Robert Ibanez, who drove forward, unchallenged, to the edge of the box and fired toward Casillas’ bottom right-hand corner. The ball beat Casillas, but it kissed the outside of the far-post and went out for a goal kick.

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Eleven minutes later, Madrid had their breakthrough, and it owed a lot to Bale’s opportunism, strength and composure. Toni Kroos threaded the ball in behind the Granada defence and Bale held off the challenge of Diego Mainz before rounding Oier. He adroitly kept the ball in play and nudged it over the line as Manuel Iturra tried to make a recovery tackle.

That heralded the opening of the floodgates, with Ronaldo grabbing his first of an incredibly productive afternoon five minutes later. After a cross into the box from Kroos, the ball fell to the feet of the returning James Rodriguez, who shuffled the ball toward Ronaldo on his left-hand side. The 30-year-old made no mistake, firing the ball into the far right-hand corner. Ronaldo was at it again just six minutes later, smartly volleying home after Oier had palmed Marcelo’s cross out toward the middle of the box.

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He didn’t have to wait long to complete his 24th La Liga hat-trick, although once again he benefited from some far from assured goalkeeping. After picking the ball up on the left, the Portuguese drove inwards before unleashing a powerful shot from 22 yards out which Oier helped on its way toward the back of the net.

With goal average a potentially decisive factor in this season’s La Liga title race, Real Madrid wisely opted against dropping the intensity after half-time, and they were rewarded with another fine finish in the 52nd minute, as Benzema chested down James’ corner from the left before firing a controlled volley beyond the hapless Oier.

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Having gone a whole 16 minutes since finding the back of the net, Ronaldo netted once again within two minutes of the Frenchman’s strike, taking advantage of some unselfish play from Bale to head into a gaping net from point-blank range. It was his 35th league goal of the season. Benzema then responded with his second of the afternoon. The striker’s deflected close-range effort forced Oier, remarkably, to pick the ball out of the back of the net for the seventh time in just 31 minutes of play.

Granada earned themselves the scantest of consolations when Ibanez broke free and confidently slotted the ball beneath Casillas, earning a smattering of applause from the Bernabeu faithful in the process, but their misery was well and truly complete when Mainz diverted Modric’s cross into his own net and Ronaldo headed home his fifth in stoppage-time to put the seal on Madrid’s most emphatic win of the season.